In survey, Texas corporate lawyers list the threats they see

Houston lawyer Gerry Pecht, who is the global leader of litigation for Norton Rose Fulbright.

Houston lawyer Gerry Pecht, who is the global leader of litigation for Norton Rose Fulbright.

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Layne Kruse, a partner at Norton Rose Fulbright in Houston.

Layne Kruse, a partner at Norton Rose Fulbright in Houston.

In survey, Texas corporate lawyers list the threats they see

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Lawsuits over contract disputes and regulatory battles with the government are larger litigation threats to Texas-based businesses - especially oil and gas companies - than are class action litigation from consumers and employees, according to a study by Houston-based law firm Norton Rose Fulbright.

The 2015 Litigation Trends Survey found that corporate general counsel in Texas believe that litigation and regulatory battles are increasingly complex and expensive, even as other studies show that litigation overall has been plummeting during the past 15 years. While regulatory actions remain a top concern, fewer general counsel identify it as their top legal issue.

"Corporate counsel in Texas and across the U.S. see an ever more litigious environment than their peers in other parts of the world," said Houston lawyer Gerry Pecht, who is the global leader of litigation for Norton Rose Fulbright.

Pecht said that the Litigation Trends Survey, which polled more than 800 corporate counsel globally, found that 55 percent of U.S. companies faced at least five lawsuits during the past 12 months, compared with 23 percent in the U.K. and 22 percent in Australia. The survey had 414 responses from lawyers in the U.S. It covered 26 countries, with the largest responses coming from the U.S., U.K. and Australia.

Only 18 percent of U.S. companies reported no lawsuits during the past year, while 42 percent of general counsel in the U.K. and 36 percent in Australia said they had not been sued during that same period.

The Norton Rose Fulbright survey found that 69 percent of U.S. companies spend $1 million or more on litigation and regulatory matters, up from 52 percent in 2012. More than 25 percent of businesses in Texas and across the U.S. spent $10 million or more on litigation in 2014, an increase from 17 percent two years earlier.

Nearly half of Texas general counsel surveyed by Norton Rose Fulbright report that they are involved in lawsuits against other companies with which they have business contracts. By comparison, slightly more than one-third of businesses in the rest of the country are involved in contract disputes.

Corporate counsel in the energy sector are most concerned about contract disputes. Given a list of 20 possibilities, 47 percent of them responded that litigation over business contracts is the most numerous type of litigation they faced in 2014, which is well above the overall survey average of 28 percent.

"By definition, drilling oil and gas wells are very expensive and involve so many parties," said Layne Kruse, a partner at Norton Rose Fulbright in Houston. "Energy companies frequently are part of joint ventures and have partners in a project. They have contracts with vendors, drillers, oil field service companies and pipeline companies."

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